The knock on the door came at 7 a.m. as Bonnie and Chris Snyder were sipping their first cups of coffee. Bonnie looked out the window, saw a flash of dark hair and knew her dreams were about to come true.

“I saw the top of his head and knew immediately it was Antonio,” she says excitedly, referring to former General Hospital star and Calvin Klein underwear model Antonio Sabato Jr. But Bonnie’s dream was not to meet the heartthrob in the flesh. Instead, Sabato’s arrival signaled that the couple had been chosen to appear on nationally syndicated home-makeover show Fix It & Finish It.

In December, the show’s host, Sabato, and an 18-person crew spent two weeks in Richmond filming 10 half-hour episodes for the renovation series that airs locally on NBC12 weekdays at 12:30 p.m. The Richmond episodes should air sometime in February.

Fix It & Finish It films in different locations across the country. The crew has been on the road since April, filming a new episode every weekday. About a month before rolling into a new city, viewers in that market are invited to submit video applications outlining the home improvement projects they want to have completed.

Producers review the videos, visit the finalists in their homes and select projects that can be filmed and completed in one day by local contractors and interior designers who donate their time and labor and most of the materials. In return, they receive the opportunity to promote their talents and businesses on air and on the show’s website.

“I get to bless people on a daily basis,” Sabato says. “It makes us feel extremely good to give back to these families. There is a certain type of reward you get from helping people and I get to experience that every day.”

The Snyders applied to have an awkward upstairs attic area in their 1936 North Side bungalow turned into usable living space with a home office, lounging area and guest quarters. They contacted Fix It & Finish It at the urging of Chris’ mother, Debbie Bell, who is a big fan of the show. “It amazes me that they can actually do a project in a day when I know how long it takes me to paint a wall,” she says.

While a crew of eight men from Walker & Frick Construction Co. worked upstairs, the Snyders stayed out of the way downstairs so as not to spoil the big reveal at the end of the program. The crew interviewed the couple at various points throughout the day, and they also helped with a DIY project that will be shown on-air.

Virt Frick of Walker & Frick Construction Co. says he had about two weeks to prepare for the project. He worked with interior designer Ryland Woodard of RW Interior Design on plans for a built-in entertainment center, shelves and desk area to transform the attic into a multi-functional room.

“We have been in business for 26 years, and our normal day-to-day work is in insurance restoration,” Frick says. “This is really outside the box for us. We are a service-oriented company, and this ties into our mission.”

Interior designer Woodard says she jumped at the chance to appear on the program, even cancelling plans to attend Art Basel in Miami, an international art fair. “I’ve done something similar to this before in terms of quick turnaround,” she says, “for a husband who wanted to surprise his wife. It is so rewarding because the people are so excited. It makes you remember why you are doing what you do.”

Woodard says the tight timeframe was made easier because she had free rein to design the room as she wanted. “We could just take the project and run with it,” she says, adding that she looked at Bonnie’s Pinterest pages to get a sense of her style. Woodard was able to secure donations from Costen Floors (carpet) and Green Front Furniture (couch) and says she donated the rest of the items in the room from her own inventory.

Walker & Frick Construction prefabricated a large entertainment center for the space that did not fit up the narrow staircase. The problem provided a dramatic moment in the show, with Sabato stepping in to suggest that it needed to be taken apart.

Sabato, who has remodeled numerous houses of his own, helps the crews when possible and is especially fond of demolition. “I can come into any house and destroy everything in 10 minutes,” he says. “I learn new things on a daily basis from the crew, designers and builders. We are always faced with different issues along the way and have to problem-solve. Somehow, we always seem to close it.”